Tomás Laughing in the Courtyard, May 1971

Photo 5 of 10 · S1 · E19 · Fado on the Hill, May 1971 · Chapter 3: Lisbon, 1971

I had never seen him smile in any of the earlier prints. In Lisbon he looked completely different.

Drag a piece onto another square to swap them, or tap a piece and then tap where it should go. With a keyboard, use the arrow keys to move, and Enter to pick up and put down. Pieces that fit together join and move as one.

About this picture

Golden afternoon sunlight filters through a leafy grape trellis onto a stone courtyard. A young man in a dark waistcoat and white shirt leans back on a wooden bench, laughing with his head tilted upward. In one hand he holds a small glass of wine. Across the rough timber table lie rolled paper maps, a wooden ruler, an ink bottle, and a ceramic pitcher. In the sunlit background, stone steps and a fountain climb toward distant rooftops.

The story so far

This photo is part of The Mender of Lantern Street, a story told one torn photograph at a time. In Belém, my grandmother photographed the river and a sunny morning with Tomás before receiving an urgent telegram from home about her ailing father.

How to play

Drag a piece onto another square to swap them, or tap a piece and then tap where it should go. Hold Preview for a faded glimpse of the photo: enough to see where the sky and the street go, not the details. Pieces that belong together join up and move as one, and turn green once they are in the right place. You have 3:00 for these 25 pieces, and the clock keeps running if you leave the page. Each photo has three stars: one for restoring it, one for finishing with1:12 still on the clock without taking extra time, and one for doing it in 32 moves or fewer. Each episode starts with 2 hints and earns more along the way; unused hints carry over to later photos. Playing needs a free account, which keeps your stars and stamps on every device. Restoring photos earns stamps (more for more stars, and extra for whole episodes), which buy more time or more hints. Once the photo is restored, turn it over and look for the clue hidden in it. Photos open one after another and episodes in order; each new chapter opens once you have enough stars from the chapters before it.